Workout Wednesday: 5 Bodyweight Exercises

I can't, in good conscience, write this post without first sharing yet another confession. I have completely fallen out of my workout routine during the past couple of weeks! It feels very hypocritical of me to be blogging about journeying to fitness when I've slipped out of my healthy routine... but you know, it happens to all of us. I've been busy at work, have had a lot of papers and big presentations, have been trying to support my sister (who has been sick with pneumonia during her pregnancy) and spend time with my niece, and I've been devoting my spare time to reading and to this blog. On many of the days that I planned to work out, it came down to questions like, "What will be best for my health today: going home so I can work out, or reading this book to my niece and then playing with her during bathtime?" As much as I value my physical health and fitness, I know that time with family will often fall as a higher priority for me, and that's okay! We all go through difficult stretches and slip out of healthful routines, but the important thing is that once we recognize that we've fallen out of balance, we try again.

And so it was with great trepidation but even greater determination that I returned to the gym this evening. And let me tell you, I could feel every single one of those Girl Scout cookies I've been sneaking in the workroom between patient visits when I got on that elliptical. It wasn't a pretty workout, but anything is better than nothing. Huzzah!

Now then. I've decided that in my effort to present a holistic and well-rounded blog, I need to include some workout resources (one, because exercise and strength training are awesome, and two, because this will actually force me to try out some different workouts so I don't fall into a rut). I've been exploring some different fitness blogs, and will try to link solely to blogs I find empowering and affirming. We see too many unrealistic images of women as it is, so you'll never see me sending you to sites like Cosmo -- I've found that it just does too much damage to my psyche, however subconsciously, and I don't wish to risk inflicting that on anyone else.

I noticed myself instantly falling into that perfectionism trap when I started perusing fitness blogs... eg. "Hmm... I wonder what I'd have to do to make it onto the 'Best Fitness Blogs of 2014' list?"... But I called myself out on that pretty quickly. I'm not a fitness expert, and I'm not going to pretend that I am! You can rest assured that if these workouts are totally foreign to you or just plain beastly hard for you, you're not alone. I'm right there struggling with you! :)

Now then. For today's workout, I wanted to post some exercises that you can do without any special equipment. (I'll try to keep them all simple like this, if possible, because all I have hanging around the house are some free weights, a yoga mat, and a random band thing that I don't know how to use very well yet!) Most of these exercises are familiar to you, and they come from the blog Girls Gone Strong. 

You can access the original article here but I'll also list them below (with some additional comments!).

Pullups

Okay, so when I was in high school gym and we had fitness testing done, my friend Laura was like this amazing pull-up MACHINE! ...and I was never able to do one. Not a single one. But apparently, there's still hope for me! The gals at Girls Gone Strong have posted an article about how to work up to an unassisted pull-up, and I am bound and determined to make it happen. You just wait and see, blog world. 

Single leg squats/pistol squats

From the article:
"Squats are often hailed as the king of exercises for what they do for your glutes and their total body effect. Single leg and pistol squats will help you with your bilateral squats, but also increase stability and sculpt your booty. The great thing about squatting one leg is that you don’t really need any equipment, since just using your bodyweight is an incredible challenge. Start by squatting to a box at a height that you can control, and consider raising your arms out in front, or even a light weight, to create a counter balance and increase stability."

Handstands

I literally laughed out loud when I saw this one and tried to picture myself doing it. After I was able to get visions of tumbling bookshelves from misplaced kicks and noise complaints from the downstairs neighbors out of my head, I decided there was probably some wisdom in what they had to say. Handstands are awesome for your core, and they recommend starting by trying to do one against a wall or with some assistance. There are probably all sorts of videos and things out there on this... so I'll just let you find them for now, as it's going to be a while before I'll be able to do a free-standing handstand!


Split squats/reverse lunges

You don't have to do these with weights like she does in this video, but here's a Girls Gone Strong video showing this simple move:

Pushups

Oh, the dreaded push-up. Another bane of my high school fitness testing existence, but again, amazing for core and upper body strength. Here's some more Girls Gone Strong advice on this:

"Instead of starting on your knees, try placing your hands on an incline so that you can do a full pushup with assistance. You’ll want to keep your abs braced, glutes and quads tight, and your body in a straight line from ear to ankle. When you go down, squeeze your shoulder blades together, and when you come up push them apart to engage your shoulder stabilizing muscles.

Eventually you can move down to the floor, and once you can do 10 on the floor, try adding load by putting a weight on your back or wearing a weighted vest."

Stay tuned for next week's Workout Wednesday: Core Strength!